Extending our classroom to the world!

Expansion

The world of sports has seen many brands come and go. Nike, Adidas, and Reebok are all names I am sure you all have heard of. Some other extremely popular brands that you may not of heard of are Sherwood, CCM, and Warrior. The reason you may of not heard of these is because they are big brands for sports that are not as popular in the the U.S. The brands that were mentioned above make gear for hockey and lacrosse, both of which are not as popular than sports like football, basketball, or baseball. Making a name for yourself in such competitive markets like these is not easy. One up and coming brand, STX, is trying to do just that.

STX is a company that makes everything Lacrosse. From protective gear, to high end lacrosse sticks, to apparel, STX makes it all. They are one of the leaders in this industry and recently have started to expand their brand into other sports such as hockey. Hockey and lacrosse have their obvious differences such as hockey is played on ice with a puck, and lacrosse is played on field with a ball. Looking past that, the sports are fairly similar in regards to gameplay and players’ gear. Even though the similarities are prevalent, not many brands exist that carry both lacrosse and hockey gear. STX might be the next big name in hockey.

STX is not the first brand to make this transition. Warrior is one of the leaders in hockey protective gear and actually got their start in lacrosse before transferring over. Warrior is still at the top of both branches and STX wants to do the same. STX has just released their first set of player sticks and gloves for hockey this past month. This small introduction into the hockey world could be the start of something big. The sticks and gloves are already being sold in hockey stores across the country and they have even picked up some NHL players to showcase their gear on the professional level. Another way how the brand is attempting to make a quick entry into the market is through discounted team sales. As part of the club hockey team at DePaul, I have seen this first hand. An STX representative came out to a team practice and let the entire team demo their new line of sticks. After practice we were given the option to buy one or more sticks at an extremely discounted price. These sticks are pro quality and are comparable to many of the sticks on the racks today. This marketing ploy is one way that STX is going to grow as a hockey brand. The best way to get noticed is by getting exposure. STX has made a strong entry and I am excited to see what they roll out next.

My question for you is what do you think the next decision for STX should be to compete with other hockey brands.

Also, what are other brands that have expanded into different sport and how/why were they successful.

A recent report suggests that YouTube will begin charging viewers for subscriptions to certain channels. It is rumor that has been circulating in the past week that YouTube will allow certain channels the opportunity to charge subscribers or viewers of their channels a small monthly fee. If YouTube indeed enters this market, they will be joining Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon.com as companies that provide content that would otherwise be found on cable television.

YouTube already has partnerships with certain companies such as Disney, Viacom and Paramount and offers a rental service but the content is not as vast as other similar services. With this deal, YouTube is expected to announce anywhere from 25 to 50 premium channels that will charge viewers for their content. Some of the expected channels include content aimed at children such as a Sesame Street channel to channels for sports such as one featuring the UFC.

This seems to be a process management utilizing incremental changes since YouTube will reportedly test out the paid subscription service with only a few partners at first. YouTube is stated to be exploring this approach to see if there is other methods to generate revenue other than the heavy reliability they have from advertisements. It will be interesting to see the reaction of people that use YouTube. It will be interesting to see if people who utilize the site for its free content will subscribe to the premium channels to view content they would have generally only been able to see on TV package they already pay for.

Do you think YouTube, with over a billion monthly viewers, could potentially have an impact on the way cable providers offer their services to their customers? When it comes to a service, quality is very important because every customer wants to be satisfied. With only a few major cable companies, do you think customer loyalty is only due to the fact that there only a limited number of providers from customers to choose from?

It is interesting to note that in class it was mentioned that in regards to service quality “giving customers some extra value will delight them by exceeding their expectations and insure their return.” I believe this could ring true for YouTube is they offer premium channels that offer popular content that could otherwise only be viewed if your a cable subscriber. By charging a small fee to view these premium channels, YouTube could challenge the cable market and force the large cable companies to reconsider their business models and offer packages that customers truly want instead of forcing them to sign up to bundle packages like many companies do. With the YouTube service, you would be able to pick and choose what content you would like to subscribe and pay for.

Would you consider testing out a premium content channel from YouTube if it offered content you already watch on cable television?

In today’s travel industry, delays, overbooking and cancellations have become common place. Today there are many airline carriers to chose from but only very few have stood the test of time and and maintained their profitability By Providing better service and less obstacles to swift traveling, companies like United and American Airlines have grown into brand names if you will. However, when large carriers like American Airlines expand and grow, the quality of their service is potentially at risk.

In March of 2013, congress approved one of the largest mergers in the airline industry’s history. It agreed to the merger proposition for American Airlines to combine with U.S. airways making it the largest airline carrier in the world with over 6,700 daily flights to 336 destinations and a little over 10,000 employees. Now the common idea with large mergers such as this, is that quality will suffer as the company become larger. So by analyzing some potential outcomes of the current picture of American Airlines and what may happen with the pending merger, we can see where things might change.

The amount of miles earned by U.S. airways fliers will not be lost in the merger but will be transferred in a one for one type of exchange into American’s AAdvantage program making it the largest airline miles club in the world with approximately 100 million members.

Another concern fliers have is the difference in in flight products offered. For example, American Airlines offers meals to fliers on flights less than two hours long, while on U.S. airways the flight must be longer than three and a half hours long before you will receive a meal. With the merger, American Airlines fliers are quite worried about the amenities they might lose when flying on American.

Flying could also get more expensive, with so many routes under the American flight portfolio, there is a strong possibility for a fare hike on many different routes where there is little to no competition from other airlines. The main hope for this merger according to executives at American Airlines is to come together and offer more fliers a better experience with seamless travel to more destinations. It seems with the intended proposed plan that American will actually improve on the delivery of a quality service to a larger group of customers.

In many instances, large mergers such as this often have negative affects on the companies involved and they often lose much of their clientele as the quality of the product or service is diminished However, in this case it appears that the intended plan would only serve to benefit both groups and their clients, as U.S. Airways customers would see an improvement on departure and arrival times with access to more daily flights, as well as an increase in the quality of the in flight services currently offered on many American flights, and the American airlines customer would see a significant increase in the number of destinations offered along with a much more flexible array of flight times with the increased number of daily flights as well. It would seem as though this merger would make American Airlines the most competitive and profitable airline in the industry which will be determined for certain when the merger takes place at some point in the projected 3rd quarter of 2013.